by Dave Ferraro
Chapter Thirty-One
“How are you feeling?” Damien asked, a cold hand stroking Shanna’s shoulder as she lay in bed, dazed. She’d felt foggy since she’d arrived at Damien’s flat earlier that night…or was it days ago? Time seemed inconsequential here, as she drifted in and out of grief and consciousness. Life had become a blur of pain and betrayal, and she hardly knew what she could trust anymore.
“You have to eat,” Damien said softly. “Please? For me?”
Shanna frowned and sat up, her blurry vision focusing on his chiseled features. She’d imagined this scenario time and time again, her alone with Damien, in his bed, that same look of concern and fondness on his face. But these were hardly the circumstances she’d envisioned to coincide with that scenario.
Clearing her throat, Shanna sat up. “Do you have some tea?”
“Whatever you’d like,” he answered, turning into a blur as he disappeared into the kitchen. She heard clanking noises from that direction and glanced over at the clock that announced that it was 12:30. But she didn’t know if that was the middle of the night or the afternoon. And it didn’t really matter, she supposed. The thick dark curtains drawn over all of the windows wouldn’t let a sliver of light in no matter the time.
“How long have I been here?” she asked, raising her voice, even though she knew full well that he would have heard her if she’d whispered the question.
And then he was in front of her again, a cold hand on her arm, smiling down at her with his red lips. “It’s been two days.”
“Two days,” she repeated. The other hunters must be worried to death at her absence. She nodded to herself and put a hand up to his cheek. “You’re cold. You haven’t fed in all that time.”
Damien snorted and ran a hand back through his dark hair. “Don’t worry about me. You’re the one who we need to think about here. What you went through…” He hesitated, glancing at her as she watched him. “No one should have to go through that.”
She turned away, not really happy about the fact that he was pitying her, but…she could hardly think about anything beyond recent events. She imagined Cameron’s face again in her mind, the angelic face that smiled and laughed with her, and then the sadistic, desperate face of a few nights ago. The transformation scared her, and more than anything, made her long for that innocent boy she’d known him to be in the beginning. What had gone so wrong?
Before she knew it, Shanna was sobbing uncontrollably, her face buried in Damien’s chest as he stroked her hair softly. It was so unfair. Everything seemed so wrong in a world where someone like Cameron could be twisted into something dark.
Her body shook as she tried to regain control, which was hard with Damien encouraging her to “let it out” as he rubbed her back, but eventually she did manage to pull herself together enough where she thought she might not melt down again for the next few minutes.
Sighing, she lifted her head from his comforting chest and looked up into his dark eyes. “Thank you for watching over me.”
“It wasn’t a problem, really,” he assured her.
“How did you know where to find me?”
Damien grinned. “I’ve heard rumblings about what has been occurring in Lime Bay for a while now. I was never very far. I acted when I saw you were in danger.”
“Like my personal guardian angel.”
The tea kettle began to whistle, and Damien left her only to return moments later with a cup of green tea and a plate with a sandwich upon it. “I hope you like turkey,” he said as he set it down before her.
She eyed it warily, but was surprised when her stomach growled in approval. “I guess maybe I am a little hungry.” She glanced up at him. “I’m okay now. You don’t have to look over me anymore.”
“It’s been my pleasure,” he assured her.
“But please…go feed. I’ll be alright by myself.”
He seemed hesitant, but nodded at her request and grabbed a leather jacket from a chair as he swept out of the room. As he left, she caught a glimpse of the dark sky across the hallway. So it was late at night then.
She picked up the sandwich Damien had left her and devoured it, realizing quickly just how hungry she’d been. She forced herself to sip the tea slowly and carefully however, so she wouldn’t burn herself, before regarding the room she lay in. It was sparsely decorated. Dark warm wood, black drapes, black silk sheets on the bed she lay in. It was rather nice and roomy, but lacked much character. It definitely needed a woman’s touch. Although who was to say this was the only place he owned. He probably had several similar residences across the world as an immortal creature of the night. Make that gorgeous immortal creature of the night. She shivered as she recalled his strong chest and lay back on the bed with a sigh. She had to wonder why she felt so safe with a vampire, but she could hardly forget his strong arms as he’d carried her from the burning remains of The Crimson Rope’s mansion months earlier.
“Cameron never stood a chance,” she said aloud, acknowledging the truth of her words. Nobody she’d ever met held a candle to the intense attraction she felt toward Damien. Cameron had been her attempt to try to find love in a traditional fashion. But it was an illusion. An illusion that had shattered dramatically. Or maybe that’s what she was telling herself to make her feel better about the whole situation. The horrifying betrayal. If it had never been real, then she wouldn’t hurt as much, right?
She bit her lip and concentrated on the physical pain rather than her frantic emotions, then forced herself up and to the edge of the bed, where she stared at a blank wall, her mind refusing to rest until it processed her pain. But she wouldn’t sit around and mope over Cameron. She refused to give him the satisfaction. The thought of him suddenly made her furious and her hands shook with her rage.
Standing up quickly, a wave of darkness swam over her vision and she felt herself tipping sideways. She put out her hands to stop her fall, but she suddenly found herself elsewhere.
She was knocking on a door in the darkness. She shivered visibly, her hands trembling with the effort as snow raged around her. Them. She looked behind her and sure enough, two men were there as well. One tall and dark with a thick beard, and one slim and blond and beautiful with pouty lips that made him look more feminine than masculine. Two very different men.
A vision, Shanna realized, noting with astuteness how the shaking hands were an act. She didn’t feel cold at all. It was a ruse. A ruse to…
The door opened and a woman appeared, immediately sympathetic upon setting eyes on them. She opened the door wider, letting out yellow light from a kerosene lamp.
“Please, Ma’am,” Diana said, teeth chattering cleverly. “It is so cold. We were caught in the storm.”
“Say not another word,” the woman stepped aside. “Come in out of the snow. All of you now.”
Diana sighed as she stepped past the threshold and took in the quaint log house. A man turned from a pot that he was tending in the fireplace, and stood up slowly, wincing at some pain in his back. “Company, Dear?” he asked.
“Just for the night, if you please,” Diana said, turning back to the woman with pleading eyes.
“Of course,” the woman said, smiling as she collected coats from them. “You must be freezing. Sit close to the fire. We’re having a lamb stew that should chase the chill from your bones, soon enough.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” the blonde man said, bowing forward slightly, his blue eyes twinkling. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old. Still a boy.
Not a boy, Shanna corrected herself as she watched the events unfold. A vampire. She had an uneasy feeling about where this was heading.
They made small talk for a while, the three vampires offering vague answers to the couple’s questions, to the point where they began to grow nervous, glancing at each other uneasily. The vampires started to look around at each other as well.
“Well,” the wo
man said after a moment of silence, nervously picking up knitting needles and working on a lovely blue scarf, “We don’t have extra beds, so you’ll have to sleep in here. But the fire will keep you warm, and we have blankets aplenty.”
“Very generous, Ma’am,” the blonde boy replied.
“Please, call me Martha,” the woman told him. “You are our guests.”
“Martha,” the boy echoed.
“Yes, and this is Jim.”
“Good to make your acquaintance, Jim,” Diana said with charm. “I am Diana. My companions are Apollo and Vlad.”
“Nice to meet you all,” Margaret said politely. “Apollo. That’s an interesting name.”
“He was inspired to take it,” Diana smiled over at him, amused.
“Oh? It’s not your given name?”
Apollo looked away. “My mother died in childbirth and I never knew my father. I never had the chance to be named properly, so I named myself.”
“After a sun god?” Jim said, frowning. He shook his head as if he disapproved, then bent over the stew again. “It looks to be about ready. I trust you’re all hungry.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Diana smiled ironically over at her companions.
“I’ll get the bowls,” Margaret said, setting aside her knitting. “You can help yourselves.”
“Don’t mind if we do,” Diana chuckled. As Margaret passed her chair, Diana reached out and grabbed the woman, pulling her onto her lap, where she buried her teeth into her throat.
“Ah!” the woman exclaimed, surprised. Then, she realized what was happening and her horror increased. “Aaaah! Jim!”
Diana pulled back, her teeth stained red, vampire fangs free of their sheaths. “So hospitable, these two.”
“Now just a minute,” Jim moved forward, but Vlad quietly kept him in place with a firm hand that Jim was unable to move no matter how hard he fought against it.
“I’m hungry,” Apollo muttered, frowning. “Hungry and bored.”
“Then let’s liven things up,” Diana beamed at him. She tapped her lower lip, considering, as Margaret hyperventilated in the chair, making squeaking noises. “Margaret does sound rather like a little pig. Shall we string her up like one?”
“Oooh, that sounds like good sport,” Apollo agreed eagerly. The twinkle returned to his eyes.
Shanna grew nauseous as a rope was procured and Diana used her amazing strength to string the woman up, anchoring the rope on a solid leg of the stove, and threading it through a cross beam. Margaret was tied around the waist, her hands and legs hogtied to Apollo’s delight. He clapped like a child as Diana worked, cheering when she’d finished.
“What fun,” Apollo exclaimed. He caught Diana by the hands and began to waltz her around the room.
“Please, please…” Jim murmured. “Take what you want.”
“We want nothing but to be amused!” Apollo cried out as he finished his dance with a flourish, spinning Diana elegantly. He smiled at Margaret, who hovered halfway to the floor. “Let’s make this bloody. I want to…bathe in blood tonight!”
“Bathe in blood?” Diana smirked. “Hmm. I doubt these filthy creatures have a bathtub.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Apollo sniffed, a note of disappointment creeping into his voice.
“But we can have the next best thing.”
Apollo raised an eyebrow as Diana leaned in and kissed him full on the mouth. He returned the kiss eagerly, bumping back into Margaret as he did so, earning moans through the stockings they’d stuffed into her mouth.
Diana laughed and ripped Apollo’s shirt open before pushing him to the floor beneath Margaret. He looked up expectantly as Diana dug her fingernails into the hanging woman’s stomach, to a stifled scream. Blood quickly flooded her shirt and dripped from her body in a stream. As Apollo shifted to try to catch the blood in his mouth, Diana put a boot to his throat. “Uh, uh, uh,” she smiled. “You’ll get your turn.”
Diana kneeled in front of Apollo and eyed the blood that dripped onto his bare chest. She waited for it collect in the hollow of his throat before springing forward to suck the blood from his bare skin. Apollo laughed merrily as she continued to lap at the blood covering his skin, lingering at his nipples and navel.
Shanna wished more than ever that she could turn away from the vile scene. But as ever, she was a spectator without control, witness to the atrocity despite her screaming resistance.
When Diana had had her fill, she stood up and slit a bigger cut into Margaret’s body with ease, letting a cascade of blood pour over her chest as she ripped open her blouse. Apollo fed on it eagerly as Vlad watched on, Jim having long ago swooned at the sight.
A small thump from upstairs caused them to give pause.
“And what would that be?” Diana wondered.
“A rat?” Apollo wrinkled his nose.
“It would be a big rat.”
They smiled at each other, their faces and torsos painted red with the life blood of their victim, looking more demon than human.
Shanna gasped as she slammed into the floor, only a second having passed as the images had invaded her mind, to haunt her for the rest of her life. How could she have been like that? Shanna recalled Emma before becoming a vampire, so sweet and vulnerable. How had she transformed into a vicious, soulless creature? Damien hadn’t been twisted like that. He was sweet and gentle, caring for her. Or…was that as much an act as Diana’s shivering in the cold?
Shaking her head, Shanna scolded herself. Damien was genuine in his concern for her. He’d had many opportunities over the past few days to take advantage of her in her state, and he had only protected her, nursed her back to health. How could she be so ungrateful as to put him in the same category as…as her.
And they were enjoying every moment of the chaos, Shanna realized. The orgy of blood, soaking themselves in blood as they murdered. It was vile, and Shanna had to fight not to lose her stomach as she recalled the horrible images of the woman slowly dying while Diana and Apollo frolicked beneath her without a care in the world.
“Get ahold of yourself,” she murmured, shaking her head. She needed…something solid to ground her after that. She needed a friendly face. She suddenly wished that Damien hadn’t left to feed. But he was a vampire. He would only serve to confuse her more.
She reached out and picked up the phone on Damien’s nightstand, carefully dialing a number after thoughtfully weighing her options.
“Hello?” a groggy voice answered on the other end after four rings. The sound was enough to shake off the nightmarish images almost immediately. It felt safe and secure…like home.
“Hey, Jordan.”
“Shanna? Shanna! Thank god! We were worried sick. Where are you? Are you okay? What did Cameron do to you?”
Shanna smiled faintly at his concern. “I’m alright. Please don’t worry about me. Cameron is…I don’t know where he is. I got away from him. You know what he did?”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. “We think so.”
“Well, you’d be right. And…I’ll be back soon, I promise. I just need to clear my head, put a little distance between me and...everything.”
Jordan sighed into the receiver. “If that’s what you need. I’ll try to make the others understand, but they’re going crazy. Please don’t…please stay safe, and come back soon.”
“I will,” she promised as she hung up. She smiled then. Hearing Jordan’s voice had helped actually. She knew she had things waiting for her back in Lime Bay. People she cared about, who cared about her. And they could help her keep the nightmares at bay, hold on to her sanity. Cameron had been the one bad thing thrown into the mix. Sure, she’d been happy with him, but he’d also been a constant source of guilt for her. Guilt at not being able to see beyond his scar. Guilt at knowing deep down that she craved Damien in a way she never would Cameron.
And in
the end, he wasn’t who she’d thought he was. He was as much a glamour as the one he wore to cover his scar, hiding a scared, narcissistic, back-stabbing… She shook her head as she let the thought go. Making him into a monster wasn’t going to make her feel better. He was human. Complete with all of the flaws and baggage that humans carried around with them.
She stared around the room once more, and, restless, she decided that a shower would do her good. And she was right. The heat felt wonderful, like it was soaking up all of the draining emotions of the past few days and lifting them from her lungs with the steam. She imagined her worries washing off of her body and down the drain, and by the time she turned the shower off, she felt a lot lighter than before. She even managed to smile at herself in the mirror after she’d cleared a circle in the glass.
“I see you’ve managed to find your way around.”
Shanna started as she looked up to see a grinning skeleton in the mirror. She twirled around, her towel wrapped around her torso, and let out a sigh of relief as Damien smiled in at her from the doorway. Of course. Rachel had told her once that mirrors reflected what a vampire would look like had they died at the point when they were changed into immortal creatures. A new vampire would look like themselves, but paler. A very old vampire would have no reflection as his bones would have turned to ash. Damien, it seemed, was only in his hundreds.
“I…yeah, sorry, I thought I needed a shower.”
Damien shrugged, looking very sexy leaning against the door frame. “What?” he demanded after she’d been staring for a minute. “Oh…am I making you uncomfortable? Because you look very breathtaking right now.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” she admitted with a grin. She hesitated, but approached him, her heart pounding as she stopped within a few inches of him. “You fed. Your skin has a little color now.” And it was true. His cheeks looked newly flushed. “That was fast.”
Damien looked away. “Yes, in New York, there are so many people…it’s easy to feed. The easiest are cab drivers. Hail a taxi, plant a little mental suggestion and drink without them knowing what’s happening. A little too easy, really. And always discreet.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
She smiled. “I like you both ways,” she told him as she reached out and touched his cheek. It was warm, almost feverish. “Cold and perfect like porcelain, and strong and warm like…someone who could…” she shook her head as she recalled his arms around her again, racing her out from the burning mansion.
Suddenly feel self-conscious, Shanna blushed, securing her towel around herself anew. “Well, I need to…”
“Yeah, of course,” Damien nodded sharply, almost jumping back. “I’ll just be in the other room.” He smiled at her as he closed the door.
Letting out a sigh, Shanna turned to look at herself in the mirror, overlooking her puffy eyes. She tried to ignore the thoughts of Cameron that threatened to invade her mind as she brushed out her hair and got dressed. A few minutes later, and she stepped out of the bathroom to find Damien sitting on a stool at the marble counter in his kitchen. His expression was suddenly more serious than it had been moments earlier.
“What’s up?” she asked casually, taking a seat herself.
To her surprise, he took her hands in his. She looked up into his eyes and suddenly felt nervous. “Damien?”
Damien smiled lightly. “I’m going to be brutally honest with you. Completely upfront. I don’t want anything between us.”
Shanna nodded slowly, recalling similar words between herself and Cameron in Greece after he’d revealed his glamour to her. Look at how well that had turned out.
“What, Damien? Just tell me.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Trust you?” she sent him a bemused smile. “Of course. You…saved my life.”
He frowned at that, but nodded. “Okay. It’s…La Faer Noir wants me to bring you to them.”
Shanna felt like he’d kicked her in the stomach. Him too? “Oh.”
“No, after seeing you…” he shook his head. “There’s no way I’m letting them get their hands on you. I’ll protect you. To the death, if I have to.”
Shanna looked down at her hands covered by his, at his thumb slowly caressing her knuckles. She recalled Diana’s hands shaking in the snow. “Did…you know about them when Cameron…”
Sighing, Damien leaned forward. “You have to understand that I’m affiliated with La Faer Noir. I do things for them, they do things for me. There’s really no escaping them when you’re…like me. I didn’t know about Cameron until the end. Until it was too late to do anything. But when La Faer Noir offered me a chance to protect you from him that night, I had to take it. Even if…even if they wanted me to get close to you for their own reasons.” He hesitated. “They want me to influence you, but what they’ve already done…I can’t do that to you.”
“I don’t understand,” Shanna confessed, shaking her head. “Why do they want to talk to me so badly? And why do you…why do you care what happens to me?”
Damien looked at her sharply, his hands tightening around hers. “Because I see more than the face that La Faer Noir sees when I look at you. And I would do anything to preserve that.”
Shanna stared into his eyes for a minute, taking in their sincerity, their determination. “How can you say that you can protect me from them when you’re a part of them?”
“I’ve never been a very obedient guy,” Damien grinned.
Shanna frowned and tried to pull away, but Damien kept a firm grip on her hands. “Damien, I don’t…I won’t let you get hurt over me.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I mean it, Damien.” She jerked her hands away and stood up. “Look at all they went through with Cameron to get to me the first time. Do you think they would just let you stop them now?”
Damien watched as she paced the floor for a moment. “I know places we can go where they’ll never find us.”
Chuckling, Shanna stopped and leaned against the counter. “Damien, I’m not going to hide from them forever. And I can’t let them continue to hurt my friends either.”
“What are you-”
“I’m saying that I’m going to talk to them,” Shanna said, nodding to herself. “If that’s what they want…” Shanna pressed her lips together into a thin line. Diana was like this huge cloud looming over her. She couldn’t escape her visions, she couldn’t escape her legacy, she just couldn’t get away from her. How could she prove that she was nothing like that vile creature? What did she have to do? She pulled on her hair, realizing that she would have to confront this head on if she was going to put Diana to rest for good, instead of allowing the phantom to stalk her for the rest of her life. “It’s inevitable, anyway. If I don’t go now…” She shook her head. “Yeah, let’s just get this over with. I want them to leave me alone.”
He looked at her with sympathy, and something like regret. “Shanna…are you sure? We can think of other options.”
“No. My mind’s made up.”
“Okay.” He leaned back in his chair, suddenly looking very tired. “I’m not sure you’ve thought this through though.”
“When do they want to see me?”
They stared at each other for a moment, Shanna reading the pleading in his eyes, but choosing to ignore it. “When?” she repeated.
“Tonight,” he said. “We could go now.”
Straightening, Shanna suddenly felt overwhelmed. To be faced with monsters and demons…who wanted something from her…it was truly frightening. And so suddenly. If La Faer Noir would waste resources to get those close to her to betray her in order to get her to this meeting, they must have something very specific in mind.
“Alright,” she said in a voice that she hoped was brave. She hopped off of the stool and grabbed his arm. “Let’s go.”
Damien watched her for a moment, bu
t nodded. He did not, Shanna noted, look very happy about this either. And that gave her some comfort.